Method and apparatus for automatically checking e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mail communications

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a system and method for detecting incorrect e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mail communications. In a first embodiment, a domain name database creates a table of domain names by automatically storing the domain names of e-mail addresses from which incoming e-mails are received. When a user creates an outgoing e-mail communication, the system checks the domain names provided by the user with those domain names stored in the table. If the user-provided domain name does not match any of the domain names in the table, or closely resembles a domain name in the table, the user is prompted to confirm the provided e-mail address. In a second embodiment, e-mail addresses are extracted from incoming e-mail communications and stored in a memory in a client computer e-mail communications system. The system checks the memory for the presence of the e-mail addresses provided in outgoing e-mail communications, and generates a prompt when an e-mail address is not present in the memory.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the transmission of electronic mailover computer networks, and more particularly, to a method and apparatusfor checking and confirming that a valid email address is provided in anemail communication prior to transmission of the communication.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

During the past decade, electronic mail (“e-mail”) has become anindispensable tool for facilitating business and personalcommunications. Through computer networking systems such as local-areanetworks (“LAN”), wide-area networks (“WAN”), and the world-wide web(“WWW”), network users can send and receive notes, messages, or letters,to communicate with others who are in the same office or perhaps inremote locations across the world.

E-mail application programs are typically configured for generatingmessages in the form of memoranda. An e-mail application user interfaceguides a user to “compose” an e-mail communication by providing aplatform for entering at least one outgoing e-mail address, a “subject”heading, and a “body” for the actual message. The user's return addressis automatically provided in the e-mail. The user may also designate adocument, file or executable program to be attached to the e-mailmessage. When the user completes typing the message and presses the“send” key, the message is transmitted over the network and is routedfor delivery to an e-mail server corresponding to the provideddestination address.

A known e-mail communications system and a method for transmitting emailcommunications between networks over the Internet are described withreference to FIG. 1. Computers 10 a-10 c are connected through a localarea network (LAN) 11 to e-mail communications system 12, which can sende-mail communications to any of computers 18 a-18 c through e-mailcommunications system 16 and local area network (LAN) 17. E-mailcommunications systems 12 and 16 include Mail Transport Agent (MTA)servers 12 a, 16 a, Post Office Protocol (POP or POP3) servers 12 b, 16b, and Message Store 12 c, 16 c. The e-mail communications servers 12and 16 are also connected to respective domain name servers (DNS) 13,15.

When an e-mail communication is transmitted according to the Simple MailTransport Protocol (SMTP), it is first divided into three components:the “mail from:” address; the recipient address list; and the dataportion of the message. After a user of computer 10 c prepares an e-mailcommunication and sends the email across the LAN 11, it is sent to theMTA 12, which accepts e-mails for delivery. The MTA then separates theaddress information from the data portion of the email. The MTA parsesthe envelope to determine whether to route the message to an externalnetwork or store the message in Message Store 12 c for access by anothercomputer connected to the LAN 11. The MTA “postmarks” the e-mail byadding routing data to the header before storing the message.

If the e-mail is to be sent to a another user on a different mailsystem, the MTA 12 next determines the domain for the intended recipientthrough the DNS 13, which queries the DNS 15 through the Internet. Uponreceiving the domain information, MTA transmits the e-mail communicationto the MTA 16 b, which is waiting to accept e-mail. The MTA 16 b thenstores the received e-mail in Message Store 16 c. Later, a user oncomputer 18 a logs in to the e-mail system and connects to the POPserver 16 a, which determines if there is new mail to download. The POPserver 16 a retrieves the e-mail communication from the Message Store 16c and transmits the e-mail through the LAN 17 to the user.

As is well known, the e-mail address that is supplied by the user mustbe in a particular format for a successful transmission. The first partof the address is the recipient's username, followed by a “@” sign, andthen a hostname or domain name, which identifies where the recipient hasan Internet mail account. The rightmost portion of the domain section ofthe address identifies the kind of organization where the recipient hasan address, which, in the United States, is typically one of: “.com”,“.edu”, “.gov”, “org”, or “.net”. During transmission, this address istranslated through a domain name server by Internet Protocol (IP) intoan IP address, which is a series of four numbers separated by periods(dots).

In some circumstances, e-mail software will prompt a user when anincorrect e-mail destination address is detected. For example, thesoftware may parse the contents of an e-mail address to check that an“@” character and a domain name are present. If the e-mail address is inthe wrong format, the system will prompt the user to provide the correcte-mail address before an attempted transmission. This e-mail formatchecking capability can conserve network resources, while providing animmediate opportunity for a user to correct and send an e-mailcommunication.

It is relatively common mistake for a user to forget or misspell ausername, hostname, or domain name in an e-mail address for an e-mailcommunication. If an invalid hostname or domain is provided, the erroris detected during transmission by the domain name server. In mostcircumstances, an error message then generated to be transmitted back tothe user. The user will then receive the error message several minutesafter having attempted to send the e-mail communication.

If the user exits from the e-mail software or logs off the computernetwork before receiving the error notification, there may be asubstantial delay before the user corrects and re-sends the e-mailcommunication.

If a user inadvertently provides an invalid username, or an incorrectbut valid hostname or domain name, the user may never be notified of theerror. The email will be transmitted in the usual course from the user'se-mail server, through the domain name server, and onto the Internet.The e-mail will eventually be routed to another MTA server, which willthen determine that the provided username is not registered at thatdomain name. Although it is conceivable for the MTA server at thatdomain name to generate and transmit an error message in response, thisis uncommon, Even if an error message is generated, it may be upwards ofa half hour before this message is forwarded to the sender.

To assist the user in supplying e-mail addresses when creating e-mailcommunications, many e-mail software applications include an addressdirectory. A user can generate entries by supplying names, addresses,telephone and facsimile numbers, e-mail addresses, and other pertinentinformation into the table. The user can later refer to the directorywhen composing an e-mail communication. Some e-mail softwareapplications incorporate an automatic e-mail address generator, which,when the user provides the first few characters of an e-mail address,suggests corresponding e-mail addresses from the list that have beenpreprogrammed into the directory.

Although the e-mail address directory alleviates some of theabove-described difficulties encountered when a user provides anincorrect e-mail address, the directory is only beneficial for thosee-mail addresses that the user pre-programmed into the directory. Formost users, the majority of outgoing e-mail communications are sent topersons who are not included in the user's address directory.Accordingly, there is a need for a system for automatically generatingor checking email addresses to reduce the occurrence of incorrectlyaddressed e-mail communications.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the difficulties described above with sending e-mailcommunications to the correct intended recipient, there is a need for amethod and apparatus for automatically checking e-mail addressesprovided in outgoing e-mail communications before the e-mail istransmitted over the network and along the Internet.

The present invention provides a system and method for detectingincorrect e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mail communications, and forresponding by prompting a user with suggested e-mail addresses. A domainname database in the e-mail communications software creates a table ofdomain names by automatically storing the domain names of e-mailaddresses from which incoming e-mails are received. When a user createsan outgoing e-mail communication, the system checks the domain nameprovided by the user with those domain names stored in the table. If theuser-provided domain name does not match any of the domain names in thetable, or closely resembles a domain name in the table, the user isprompted to confirm the provided e-mail address.

The e-mail communications software also tracks the number and frequencyby which an e-mail address appears in incoming and outgoing e-mailcommunications. If an e-mail address is frequently used or received, anentry is automatically generated in a personalized e-mail addressdirectory. The address directory is then used to check the completee-mail addresses provided in outgoing e-mail communications, and tosuggest e-mail addresses when the system detects an incorrect e-mailaddress.

An object of the invention is to provide a method of automaticallychecking for an incorrect e-mail address in an outgoing e-mailcommunication. A list of domain names is stored in a memory. The list ofdomain names is checked for whether a domain name of the e-mail addressis present in the list. A prompt is generated for a user to confirm ane-mail address if the domain name is not included in the list of domainnames.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method of automaticallychecking for misspelled e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mailcommunications prior to transmission by an e-mail communications server.Domain names in senders' email addresses are extracted from e-mailcommunications incoming to the email communications server. Theextracted domain names are stored in a domain name database. Outgoinge-mail communications are received from client computers connected tothe e-mail communications server through a local network. The domainname database is searched for domain names spelled similarly to thedomain names in e-mail addresses provided in the outgoing e-mailcommunications, and an error prompt is generated upon detecting that adomain name in an e-mail address provided in an outgoing e-mailcommunication is misspelled.

The present invention also provides an e-mail server for automaticallychecking for misspelled e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mailcommunications prior to transmission by an e-mail communications server.The server includes an interceptor for extracting domain names frome-mail addresses provided in incoming and outgoing e-mailcommunications. A domain name database stores domain names extractedfrom senders' e-mail addresses in incoming e-mail communications. Achecker searches the domain name database for domain names spelledsimilarly to the domain names in e-mail addresses provided in theoutgoing e-mail communications, wherein the e-mail server detectsmisspelled domain names in e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mailcommunications.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method ofautomatically checking for an incorrect e-mail address in an outgoinge-mail communication, comprising the steps of storing a list of e-mailaddresses in a memory, checking if an e-mail address in the e-mailcommunication is included in the list of e-mail addresses in the memory,and generating a prompt for a user to confirm an e-mail address if thedomain name is not included in the list of e-mail addresses.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide an e-mailcommunications system stored in a client computer for automaticallychecking for incorrect e-mail addresses provided in outgoing e-mailcommunications from the client computer prior to transmission to ane-mail server. An address extractor extracts senders' email addressesfrom incoming e-mail communications. A memory stores e-mail addressesextracted from senders' e-mail addresses in incoming e-mailcommunications. A checker searches the memory for e-mail addresses thatare provided in outgoing e-mail communications, The checker generates aprompt upon detecting that an e-mail address in an outgoing e-mailcommunication is not present in the memory.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a known e-mail communications andcomputer network system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an e-mail communications serveraccording to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram for storing domain names in a domain namedatabase in the e-mail communications server of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a table of an exemplary domain name database in the e-mailcommunications server of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram for checking domain names in outgoing e-mailcommunications according to the first embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6. is a schematic diagram of a client-side e-mail communicationssystem according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7. is a flow diagram for storing e-mail addresses in an addressdirectory in FIG. 6 according to the second embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram for checking e-mail addresses in outgoinge-mail communications according to the second embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described in more detail withreference to the figures. In the e-mail communications system accordingto the first embodiment of the present invention, as shown in theschematic diagram provided in FIG. 2, the e-mail server includes adomain name store 20, an e-mail header interceptor/parser 21, and adomain name checker 22, in addition to the other contents of aconventional e-mail server. A Message Store 23 stores e-mail messagesthat are received in the e-mail communications network. MTA server 24accepts mail or delivery and either holds it for download by a client orpasses it to another MTA server for delivery. POP server 25 stores mailreceived via SMTP until it is read by the user.

When an e-mail communication is received in the MTA 24, e-mailcommunications software in the e-mail header interceptor/parser 21 scansthe sender's e-mail address information, which is forwarded to thedomain name checker 22. The checker 22 copies the sender's e-mailaddress and searches the domain name store 20 for the sender's domainname. If there is no such entry in the domain name database, a new entryis created and stored in the database 20. The checker is preferablyimplemented as a script file in software.

The method for populating the domain name database according to thefirst embodiment of the present invention is now described withreference to FIG. 3. In step 30, an e-mail communication is received andprocessed in the e-mail server 15. The header of the incoming e-mailmessage is scanned in step 31, and the domain name address is copied instep 32. The e-mail checker 22 then searches the domain name database 20in step 33 for the existence of the domain name copied from the incominge-mail message. If the domain name is already stored in the domain namedatabase, the e-mail checking operation performs any necessary databaseupdating operations in step 34, and quits in step 35. The system mayupdate the database by storing the date that e-mail is received, and bycalculating information concerning the frequency by which e-mails havingthe domain are received.

If the domain name does not currently exist, a new record is created insteps 36-37. To create a new record, the database will first store thenewly received domain name in step 36. Corresponding with step 34, thedatabase may also store the date that the record is created, in step 37.

An exemplary domain name store 20 is provided in FIG. 4. The domain namestore includes domain names associated with an assortment of corporatee-mail accounts and Internet service providers. If the invention isinstalled on a corporate e-mail system containing many e-mail accounts,and the accountholders are engaged in a variety of different businessactivities, there may be a wide assortment of domain names from e-mailcommunications that are received. As will be described, oneaccountholder may benefit from the domain name of an e-mailcommunication that was transmitted to another accountholder.

In addition to storing domain names extracted from addresses of e-mailapplications that were received in the e-mail server, the domain namestore may also include dates that the domain name in an e-mail addresswas first and most recently received by the network, and a list thattracks the user names in the internal network who have received e-mailcommunications for each given domain name. The database may alsocalculate a “frequency factor” by which e-mail communications arereceived from an accountholder at the given domain name. The “frequencyfactor” may be calculated according to the number of times that thedomain name has been received over a certain period of time. Thiscalculation can be weighted according to how recently the domain namehas been received by the network.

In order to maintain the domain name database at a reasonable size, thee-mail server may be configured to periodically remove domain names fromthe domain name database that are used only infrequently. For example, adomain name entry may be deleted if none of the listed recipients ispresently an accountholder in the network. Domain name entries also maybe deleted if the “frequency factor” falls below a threshold value.Although there are several possible methods for maintaining the databasesize, the e-mail checker will function most effectively if there are nosize restrictions for the database.

A method for checking an outgoing e-mail communication according to thefirst embodiment is now described with reference to FIG. 5. A user firstcreates a draft e-mail communication in step 50. The e-mailcommunication includes at least one destination e-mail address, but mayalso include a subject heading, message, and/or attachment files. Whenthe user attempts to send the e-mail communication, it is transmittedfrom the user's networked computer along a LAN and is received in thenetwork e-mail server in step 51. The checker now extracts the domainname from the proposed recipient's e-mail address in step 52, and checksthe provided domain name in step 53. If the domain name database in theemail server contains the provided domain name, the e-mail serverprocesses the email communication according to http protocol in step 54,and forwards the e-mail along the Internet gateway for transmission instep 55.

If the domain name database does not detect the extracted domain name instep 53, the system provides a prompt to the user in step 56. The promptcan occur in several possible formats. For example, the e-mail servermay send a network message alert to the sender's personal computer, ormay generate and transmit an e-mail message containing the prompt. Ineither case, the user can then decide in step 57 whether to confirm thee-mail address, correct the e-mail communication, or cancel delivery, insteps 58, 59, and 60, respectively. If the e-mail is confirmed in step58, it is then processed for transmission in step 54, as describedabove. The system may then add the confirmed domain name to the domainname database. If the e-mail is corrected, the system will re-extractthe domain name in step 52 and repeat the checking operation in step 53before the e-mail is processed and transmitted.

In the method as described in FIG. 5 for checking an e-mailcommunication, the e-mail checker 22 of FIG. 2 searches the domain namedatabase only for the domain name extracted from the user's e-mailcommunication, and generates a prompt when the domain name is notpresent in the database. As an alternative, the checker can beconfigured to search for domain names that are spelled similarly to theextracted domain name. In this manner, the checker will perform a pseudospell-checking operation to detect mistyped domain names. When a userprovides an e-mail address with a domain name that is not similar to anydomain names in the database, the e-mail server processes the e-mailcommunication, in the normal manner, without generating a prompt to theuser. By only searching for words that are likely to have been mistypedor misspelled, the e-mail checker will cause less distraction for theuser. Furthermore, because most e-mail addressing errors result frommisspelled or mistyped domain names, this checking algorithm may beequally effective in detecting incorrect or invalid e-mail addresses.

There are numerous methods for detecting whether a user-provided domainname is similar to one or more domain names stored in the domain namedatabase to perform a spell-checking operation. As one example, thee-mail checker can check each alpha-numeric character of the domainnames in the database against those in the extracted domain name. Thesystem can then generate a prompt when there is at least one but no morethan two discrepancies between a reference domain name and the extracteddomain name. The e-mail checker can also remove alpha-numeric charactersfrom the extracted domain name, perhaps one at a time, and search thedomain name database for a domain name having at least each of theremaining alpha-numeric characters. These algorithms will likely detecterrors that occur when a user misspells a word by inadvertentlyswitching two letters. The e-mail checker can also compare the extracteddomain against the reference domain names according to basic grammarrules, as is known in conventional spell-checking software.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, as specificallydescribed with reference to FIGS. 2-5, a domain name is extracted from auser-provided e-mail address and checked in the domain name database ofthe network e-mail server. By maintaining the domain name database atthe e-mail server, as opposed to the client computers, a single domainname database becomes populated with domain names from all incominge-mail addresses to any of the users in the network. Accordingly, thedomain name database can quickly become a directory of those domainnames that the users in the network often encounter. The server-sideconfiguration of the e-mail checker and domain name database also savesprocessing power and storage capacity at the client-side user computers.

Although many e-mail addressing errors occur in the domain name of theemail address, addressing errors can also occur from misspelled ormistyped usernames at the beginning of the e-mail address. In the secondembodiment of the present invention, which can be utilized separately orin conjunction with the first embodiment, the entire e-mail address ischecked in a personalized e-mail address directory. The e-mail addressdirectory, which is preferably stored on the user's client-sidecomputer, can be incorporated into business/personal contact organizersystems that are available in many conventional e-mail communicationsoftware packages. Prior to transmitting an e-mail message composed bythe user, the email system performs an e-mail address check against thedatabase of e-mail addresses stored in the personalized addressdirectory.

A schematic representation of the client-side e-mail communicationspersonalized address directory and e-mail address checking system is nowdescribed with reference to FIG. 6. The client-side e-mailcommunications system 61 primarily consists of input/output interface62, memory 72, e-mail messaging software 64, address directory 65, andcalendar/organizer 63. The input/output interface 62 connects to thecalendar/organizer 63, e-mail messaging software 64, and addressdirectory 65 to facilitate communications with the LAN network and theuser's display. As is known in the art, the e-mail messaging softwarecomponent 64 includes e-mail notification software 66, templates forcomposing e-mail communications 67, graphical user interface 68, messageand attachment viewer software 69, and file attachment software 70. Thee-mail messaging software component 64 of the present invention furtherincludes checker software 71 to detect incorrect or invalid e-mailaddresses in outgoing e-mail communications, as will be explained infurther detail below.

The address directory 65 includes a list of names, addresses, telephonenumbers, facsimile numbers, and e-mail addresses of persons whom theuser may intend to contact. The directory is logically connected to thee-mail messaging software 64 such that a user can access e-mail addressinformation stored in the directory when composing an e-mailcommunication. Through a graphical user interface 73 and directorymanagement software 74, the user may personalize the address directoryby adding new contact information, which is stored in memory 78. Theaddress directory 65 can also be configured to communicate with otherdevices to assist with customization and directory maintenance, such asa user's personal digital assistant (PDA) or a business card scanner.

The address directory 65 of the present invention also includes addresschecker directory software 75 that automatically adds e-mail addressesfor storage in memory 78 of address directory 65 for later referencewhen checking e-mail addresses in the checker 71 of e-mail messagingsoftware 64. When the user receives an e-mail communication, the checkerdirectory software 75 extracts the email address for storage in memory78. Alternatively, the system may be configured such that the systemwill first detect whether the user frequently receives e-mailcommunications from a particular sender before storing the e-mailaddress.

A method for populating memory 78 with e-mail addresses for e-mailchecking is now described with reference to FIG. 7. In step 80, ane-mail communication is received in the user's e-mail messaging software64. The e-mail address from the received e-mail communication isextracted by address extractor 76 in the checker directory software 75in step 81. The system searches for the occurrence of the extractede-mail address in memory 78 in step 82. The e-mail address may have beenentered into memory 78 directly by the user via the directory managementsoftware 74, or may have been previously added by the address checkersoftware 75. If the e-mail address is present in the memory 78, thefrequency tally 77 updates the tally associated with the e-mail addressin step 83. In this manner, frequency tally tracks how often the userreceives e-mails from certain e-mail addresses. If the e-mail address isnot present in the memory 78, the e-mail address is added to the memory78 in step 84.

Periodically, the system checks whether the frequency tallies associatedwith the e-mail addresses stored in memory have fallen below a thresholdlevel. If it is determined that the user seldom receives an e-mailcommunication from any given e-mail address, this e-mail address canthen be deleted from memory 78, if necessary, to conserve storage space.

A method for checking outgoing e-mail addresses according to the secondpreferred embodiment is now described with reference to FIG. 8. A userdrafts an email communication including an outgoing e-mail address instep 90. In step 91, the e-mail address is extracted from the “to:”field in the e-mail messaging software 64 and is supplied to checker 71.The checker generates a search of the memory 78 in the address directory65 for the supplied e-mail address in step 92. If the e-mail address ispresent in the address directory memory, the e-mail messaging software64 processes the e-mail communication in step 93 and transmits thee-mail to the LAN, the e-mail server, and on to the Internet gateway instep 94.

If the e-mail address is not present in the address directory memory,the checker 71 generates a prompt in step 95. In response to the prompt,the user can either choose in step 96 to confirm the provided e-mailaddress in step 97, provide a corrected e-mail address in step 98, orcancel delivery of the message in step 99. If the user confirms that theprovided e-mail address is correct, the checker then processes thee-mail communication as described with reference to step 93. If the usercorrects the e-mail address, the system re-extracts the e-mail addressin step 91 and repeats the checking process. This process is repeatedfor each e-mail address that the user provides in the “to:” and “cc:”fields of the proposed e-mail communication.

The e-mail domain name checker that operates on the e-mail server andthe e-mail address checker that operates on user computers can beutilized either individually or in combination. As further alternatives,the domain name checker described with reference to FIGS. 2-5 can beinstalled within each user computer, and/or the e-mail address checkerdescribed with reference to FIGS. 6-9 can be installed on the e-mailserver.

Accordingly, the e-mail domain name checker and e-mail address checkercan assist the user in minimizing the occurrences of e-mailcommunications that would otherwise have been incorrectly sent. Thus, itis readily seen that the method and system of the present inventionprovides for improved and efficient e-mail communications, by detectingincorrect e-mail addresses and prompting the sender to correct theaddresses prior to transmission of the e-mail communication.

The foregoing disclosure of embodiments of the present invention andspecific examples illustrating the present invention have been presentedfor purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed.Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described hereinwill be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of theabove disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only bythe claimed appended hereto, and by their equivalents.

1. A method of providing a system for automatically checking for anincorrect e-mail address in an outgoing e-mail communication,comprising: creating an incoming domain name list in a memory; receivingan incoming email communication; extracting a domain name from asender's email address from the incoming email communication; storingthe domain name in the incoming domain name list in the memory; checkingif a domain name of an e-mail address associated with an intendedrecipient of an outgoing e-mail communication is included in theincoming domain name list in the memory; checking if a discrepancyexists between a domain name of an e-mail address associated with anintended recipient of an outgoing e-mail communication and a domain nameincluded in the incoming domain name list in the memory by detectingwhen there is at least one but no more than a maximum number ofdiscrepancies between a domain name in the domain name database and theextracted domain name; and transmitting the outgoing email communicationif the domain name is included in the incoming domain name list,otherwise generating a prompt for a user to confirm an e-mail addressassociated with the intended recipient of the outgoing e-mailcommunication.
 2. The method of checking for an incorrect e-mail addressaccording to claim 1, further comprising extracting a domain name fromeach e-mail address provided in the outgoing e-mail communication,wherein the e-mail communication is transmitted after checking eachextracted domain name in the incoming domain name list, and confirmingeach e-mail address for which the extracted domain name is not includedin the incoming domain name list.
 3. The method of checking for anincorrect e-mail address according to claim 1, further comprisingreceiving a corrected e-mail address from the user in response to theprompt; and repeating the checking a corrected domain name andgenerating a prompt if the corrected domain name is not included in theincoming domain name list, until the user either confirms that thedomain name provided in the e-mail address is correct or provides adomain name that is in the list of domain names.
 4. The method ofchecking for an incorrect e-mail address according to claim 1, whereinthe outgoing e-mail communication is intercepted in an e-mail server tocheck the domain name in the e-mail address prior to transmission. 5.The method of checking for an incorrect e-mail address according toclaim 4, wherein the prompt is an e-mail message from the e-mail serverto the user.
 6. The method of checking for an incorrect e-mail addressaccording to claim 4, wherein the prompt is a network message to theuser.
 7. A method of automatically checking for misspelled e-mailaddresses in outgoing e-mail communications prior to transmission by ane-mail communications server, comprising: receiving email communicationsincoming to the email communications server; creating a domain namedatabase; extracting domain names in sender's e-mail addresses from thee-mail communications incoming to the email communications server;storing extracted domain names in the domain name database; receivingoutgoing e-mail communications from client computers connected to thee-mail communications server through a local network; searching thedomain name database for domain names spelled similarly to the domainnames in e-mail addresses associated with intended recipients of theoutgoing e-mail communication provided in the outgoing e-mailcommunications by detecting when there is at least one but no more thana maximum number of discrepancies between a domain name in the domainname database and the extracted domain name; and generating an errorprompt upon detecting that a domain name in an e-mail address providedin an outgoing e-mail communication is misspelled.
 8. The method ofautomatically checking for misspelled e-mail addresses in outgoinge-mail communications according to claim 7, wherein searching forsimilarly spelled domain names is performed by checking eachalphanumeric character comprised in the extracted domain name with thealpha-numeric characters comprised in the domain names in the database.9. The method of automatically checking for misspelled e-mail addressesin outgoing e-mail communications according to claim 7, whereinsearching for similarly spelled domain names is performed by removing analpha-numeric character from the extracted domain name and searching thedomain name database for a domain name consisting of at least each ofthe remaining alphanumeric characters in the extracted domain name. 10.The method of automatically checking for misspelled e-mail addresses inoutgoing e-mail communications according to claim 7, wherein searchingfor similarly spelled domain names is performed by comparing theextracted domain name with reference domain names stored in the domainname database according to predetermined spelling grammar algorithms.11. The method of automatically checking for misspelled e-mail addressesin outgoing e-mail communications according to claim 7, wherein theerror prompt is an e-mail message from the e-mail server to the clientcomputer transmitting the e-mail communication.
 12. The method ofautomatically checking for misspelled e-mail addresses in outgoinge-mail communications according to claim 7, wherein the error prompt isa network message from the e-mail server to the client computertransmitting the e-mail communication.
 13. The method of automaticallychecking for misspelled e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mailcommunications according to claim 7, further comprising determiningwhether extracted domain names are already stored in the domain namedatabase, whereby only a single copy of an extracted domain name isstored in the domain name database.
 14. The method of automaticallychecking for misspelled e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mailcommunications according to claim 13, further comprising storing tallyinformation in the domain name database to tally the frequency in whichdomain names in the domain name database are extracted from incominge-mail communications.
 15. The method of automatically checking formisspelled e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mail communications accordingto claim 14, further comprising deleting domain names from the domainname database that are not frequently extracted from incoming e-mailcommunications according to respective tally information.
 16. The methodof automatically checking for misspelled e-mail addresses in outgoinge-mail communications according to claim 15, wherein the tallyinformation for each domain name in the domain name database includesthe calendar date in which the domain name was most recently extracted.17. An e-mail server for automatically checking for misspelled e-mailaddresses in outgoing e-mail communications prior to transmission by ane-mail communications server, comprising: an interceptor for extractingdomain names from e-mail addresses provided in incoming and outgoinge-mail communications; a database generator for generating a domain namedatabase for storing domain names extracted from sender's e-mailaddresses in incoming e-mail communications; and a checker for searchingthe domain name database for domain names spelled similarly to thedomain names in e-mail addresses associated with intended recipients ofin the outgoing e-mail communications by detecting when there is atleast one but no more than a maximum number of discrepancies between adomain name in the domain name database and the extracted domain name,wherein the e-mail server prompts the user when it detects misspelleddomain names in e-mail addresses in outgoing e-mail communications. 18.The e-mail server for automatically checking for misspelled e-mailaddresses in outgoing e-mail communications according to claim 17,further comprising: an internal network communications interface forreceiving outgoing e-mail communications to be transmitted from clientcomputers and sending incoming e-mail communications to clientcomputers, wherein the prompt is transmitted from the internal networkcommunications interface to the client computer requesting transmissionof the corresponding outgoing e-mail communication.
 19. The e-mailserver for automatically checking for misspelled e-mail addresses inoutgoing e-mail communications according to claim 18, furthercomprising: an external network communications interface for receivingincoming e-mail communications from an external network and sendingoutgoing e-mail communications transmitted from client computerconnected to the internal network, wherein outgoing e-mailcommunications are transmitted from the external network communicationsinterface to the external network after the checker confirms e-mailaddress spelling in the outgoing e-mail communications.
 20. A method ofautomatically checking for an incorrect e-mail address in an outgoinge-mail communication, comprising: creating an incoming email addresslist in a memory; receiving an incoming email communication; storing, inthe incoming email address list in the memory, an email addressextracted from the incoming email communication; checking is an e-mailaddress associated with an intended recipient of the outgoing e-mailcommunication is included in the incoming email address list in thememory; checking if a discrepancy exists between an e-mail addressassociated with an intended recipient of the outgoing e-mailcommunication and an email address included in the incoming emailaddress list in the memory by detecting when there is at least one butno more than a maximum number of discrepancies between an email addressin the email address list and the e-mail address associated with anintended recipient of the outgoing e-mail communication; andtransmitting the outgoing email communication if the e-mail address isincluded in the incoming email address list, otherwise generating aprompt for a user to confirm an e-mail address if the email address isnot included in the incoming email address list.
 21. The method ofautomatically checking for an incorrect e-mail address in an outgoinge-mail communication according to claim 20, further comprising-storingtally information in the memory to tally the frequency by which thee-mail addresses are extracted from incoming e-mail communications. 22.The method of automatically checking for an incorrect e-mail address inan outgoing e-mail communication according to claim 21, furthercomprising deleting e-mail addresses from the memory that are notfrequently extracted from incoming e-mail communications according torespective tally information.
 23. The method of automatically checkingfor an incorrect e-mail address in an outgoing e-mail communicationaccording to claim 20, wherein the memory is in an e-mail addressdirectory in a client computer system.
 24. An e-mail communicationssystem stored in a client computer for automatically checking forincorrect e-mail addresses provided in outgoing e-mail communicationsfrom the client computer prior to transmission to an e-mail server,comprising: an address extractor for extracting sender's e-mailaddresses from incoming e-mail communications; a previous senderaddresses memory for storing e-mail addresses extracted from sender'se-mail addresses in incoming e-mail communications; a checker forsearching the previous sender addresses memory for e-mail addresses ofintended recipients that are provided in outgoing e-mail communications,and a checker for searching for a discrepancy between a sender addressand the previous sender addresses memory for e-mail addresses ofintended recipients that are provided in outgoing e-mail communicationsby detecting when there is at least one but no more than a maximumnumber of discrepancies between a previous sender address in theprevious sender address memory and the email address of an intendedrecipient, wherein the checker generates a prompt for verification of ane-mail address of an intended recipient upon detecting that an e-mailaddress of an intended recipient in an outgoing e-mail communication isnot present in the previous sender addresses memory.
 25. The e-mailcommunications system stored in a client computer for automaticallychecking for incorrect e-mail addresses according to claim 24, whereinthe previous sender addresses memory is included in an e-mail addressdirectory.
 26. The e-mail communications system stored in a clientcomputer for automatically checking for incorrect e-mail addressesaccording to claim 25, wherein the e-mail address directory additionallystores user-specified e-mail addresses.